The invention relates to a display device comprising an electro-optical display medium between two supporting plates, a system of pixels arranged in rows and columns, with each pixel being formed by picture electrodes arranged on the facing surfaces of the supporting plates, and a system of row and column electrodes for presenting selection and data signals by means of which a range of voltages dependent on the electro-optical display medium can be presented across the pixels for the purpose of picture display.
The invention also relates to a method of driving such a display device.
A display device of this type is suitable for displaying alphanumerical information and video information by means of passive electro-optical display media such as liquid crystals, electrophoretic suspension and electrochromic materials.
A display device of the type described in the opening paragraph is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,006, in the name of the Applicant. In the device shown in this Application diodes are used as non-linear switching elements in an active matrix, namely two diodes per pixel. Two successive rows of pixels each time have one row electrode in common. The drive mode is such that in television applications (for example with a drive mode in accordance with the PAL or NTSC system) the information of two successive even and odd lines is presented across each pixel at an alternating polarity and at the field frequency. The information of a pixel row is therefore determined by the average signal of two successive even and odd lines. Since each time two rows of picture electrodes are simultaneously written because two successive rows each time have one row electrode in common, such a device provides little flexibility as regards the choice of colour filters to be used. In fact, this choice is limited to strip-shaped colour filters.